27 Killed in Rocket Attack on Port City in Eastern Ukraine

1of 2A woman holds a candle at a memorial to those killed in an attack on Donetsk, Ukraine. A leader of the rebels holding that city said the attack would be avenged on multiple fronts, including Mariupol, which was hit Saturday.Photo: Brenda Hoffman /New York Times

2of 2People gather at a memorial to those killed when a rocket struck a trolley bus, in Donetsk, Ukraine, Jan. 24, 2015. Aleksandr Zakharchenko, a leader of the Russian-backed rebels holding Donetsk, said that attacks on multiple fronts were underway as revenge, including Mariupol, where a barrage of rockets killed 27 and wounded 97 on Saturday, according to Ukraineâs Interior Ministry. (Brendan Hoffman/The New York Times)Photo: BRENDAN HOFFMAN, STR / New York Times

DONETSK, Ukraine — A barrage of rockets struck homes and a market in the Azov Sea port city of Mariupol in the eastern part of this country Saturday, killing 27 people and wounding 97 others, the Interior Ministry said.

It was the latest indication that after a relative lull in the fall, the war has flared up again in eastern Ukraine, with lethal artillery strikes landing in both rebel- and Ukrainian-controlled regions.

A leader of the Russian-backed rebels, Alexander Zakharchenko, has said his forces now are on the offensive, and Saturday he said a military assault had begun against Mariupol, a strongly pro-Ukrainian seaside city with a prewar population of about 400,000 but now bulging with thousands of refugees from Crimea and elsewhere in eastern Ukraine.

“We began our attack on Mariupol,” Zakharchenko said at a memorial for victims of a recent artillery bombardment of a bus stop in Donetsk. Both sides blame the other for that attack, and estimates of the number of dead are contested, ranging from eight to 13.

Zakharchenko said that separatist forces had also begun an attack on a road and railroad hub north of Donetsk, and that this attack and the assault on Mariupol were “revenge” for deaths in the war in Donetsk.

In announcing the start of military operations against Mariupol, Zakharchenko didn’t claim responsibility for the rocket attack. Earlier Saturday, a spokesman for the Donetsk People’s Republic had denied that rebels were responsible for the strike, which hit near a Ukrainian barracks and also killed one soldier.

But Secretary of John Kerry on Saturday blamed the rebels for the Mariupol attack, condemning the “horrific assault by Russia-backed separatists,” and calling on Russia “to end its support for separatists immediately.”

Armed with what appeared to be new tanks and other heavy weapons from Russia, rebels in recent days captured the ruins of the Donetsk airport and their leaders say openly they now are on the march.